Enabling Euro-Elite Fears Downturn … Recession pre-baked as Eurozone dithers … There's been regrettably little optimism on display among world leaders over the past week, only a feeling of growing alarm. But equally regrettably, it is with good reason. Among bankers and policymakers in Washington for the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund, the mood was one of unrelenting gloom. Many thought both Europe and the US already effectively back in recession. – UK Telegraph

Republicans Desperate to Beat Ron Paul … Barbara Bush phones Chris Christie's wife to beg him to run for White House … Wife of former President George H. W. Bush tells Mary Christie that her family would be just fine in the White House. As speculation brews about a possible Chris Christie bid for the White House, several big names are joining a chorus to persuade him. Among them is former First Lady Barbara Bush, who recently phoned the New Jersey governor's wife Mary to convince her that the Christie family would be just fine in the White House despite the intense attention, a source told the New York Post. – UK Daily Mail

Beware the Cantaloupe That Kills … Cantaloupe outbreak is deadliest in a decade … Health officials say as many as 16 people have died from possible listeria illnesses traced to Colorado cantaloupes, the deadliest food outbreak in more than a decade. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday that 72 illnesses, including 13 deaths, are linked to the tainted fruit. State and local officials say they are investigating three additional deaths that may be connected. – AP

Enabling Euro-Elite Fears Downturn

Recession pre-baked as Eurozone dithers … There's been regrettably little optimism on display among world leaders over the past week, only a feeling of growing alarm. But equally regrettably, it is with good reason. Among bankers and policymakers in Washington for the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund, the mood was one of unrelenting gloom. Many thought both Europe and the US already effectively back in recession. – UK Telegraph

Dominant Social Theme: Everything was going so well and now gloom is spreading across Europe. What will happen to the recovery if people don't stay positive?

Free-Market Analysis: We've been tracking the growing depression for years now and we've been surprised at the kind of lid the mainstream media can keep on what's going wrong. It really is ridiculous, but the business press takes it lead from statistical reporting issued by Western governments. If the US government says that indicators show the economy is out of recession then it is – even if millions remain out of work.

What this means essentially is that government reporting simply can't be trusted and mainstream media reporting the government line loses credibility whenever they make statements pertaining to the economy that are evidently and obviously untrue.

What is true is that the West's economy is not creating jobs because the dollar-reserve system is finished – a victim of overprinting and the eventual severing of the real economy from credible price information. So many large corporations and financial firms have been bailed out in the West that it is impossible to tell what is a going business and what is a bankrupt one.

Additionally, the same thing is happening in China, which is in an even worse state from what we can tell. Many of its largest corporations are merely fronts for the Chinese Communist Party, so who knows what's viable in such an economy and what's not.

Still, for years – even after the economic crash of 2008 – Western governments have insisted that the West's economic model is still fine, functional and ongoing. Of course it's not but until recently the party line was remarkably resonant and resilient.

But not anymore. There's real concern finally in both the US and Europe over the way the West's and the world's economy is unraveling. The UK Telegraph article excerpted makes mention not just of Western gloom but also of "concern over the state of until now booming Asian economies."

What's the concern for? Well … "China is slowing fast, and at least two of Asia's tiger economies are heading into technical recession, something that hasn't happened since the emerging markets crisis nearly 15 years ago. On the basis that the mood among bankers and policymakers is a generally quite poor guide to what's really going on, it would be nice to take a contrary stance and argue that things are not quite as bad as they seem. Unfortunately, it would not be justified."

What's not sunk in yet when it comes to the political class is that the real power in the world – the Anglosphere central banking families – likely expect and perhaps even welcome the onrushing Depression because it may provide a pretext to move more quickly and emphatically toward one-world government.

It will be the politicians and military and business classes that may take the brunt of Middle Class rage if things turn really ugly. Perhaps that is only now dawning on those who have served their London City masters. The sword cuts two ways.

Republicans Desperate to Beat Ron Paul

Barbara Bush phones Chris Christie's wife to beg him to run for White House … Wife of former President George H. W. Bush tells Mary Christie that her family would be just fine in the White House. As speculation brews about a possible Chris Christie bid for the White House, several big names are joining a chorus to persuade him. Among them is former First Lady Barbara Bush, who recently phoned the New Jersey governor's wife Mary to convince her that the Christie family would be just fine in the White House despite the intense attention, a source told the New York Post. – UK Daily Mail

Dominant Social Theme: We really need someone practical who can beat Barack Obama and boost the military-industrial complex at the same time. No reason to pick on the Pentagon after all …

Free-Market Analysis: It's getting ugly out there. We've advanced the theory that the Anglosphere power elite will finally just give up and anoint libertarian Congressman Ron Paul as the standard-bearer of the Republican party. But that doesn't seem to be happening yet.

Instead, pure panic seems to be setting in. Ron Paul evidently and obviously is running a close second to Mr. "Middle of the Road" Mitt Romney and some polls seem to show that he would actually beat President Barack Obama in a head-to-head election.

This is no comfort at all to establishment Republicans who like to talk about cutting spending and reducing the size of government but do neither when they are in power. Apparently, Republican honchos believe that Ron Paul actually would try to trim the US behemoth. He wouldn't just be talk. There would be some action as well.

And so the leadership is looking high and low for someone – anyone – to confront the "libertarian nightmare" that is Ron Paul. We wrote just yesterday about how Chris Christie is coming under significant pressure to run for president because unlike Rick Perry – who has virtually talked himself out of his front-running position and perhaps the election entirely – Christie comes off as a sincere small-government type.

You can't just assume sincerity as Perry tried to do. It has to be earned, and Chris Christie has earned some of it with his confrontational budget cutting in the state of New Jersey. And this makes him a rare and sought-after commodity.

And thus the Republican leadership is rolling out its biggest guns, including former first First Lady Barbara Bush who recently phoned Chris Christie's wife Mary to urge her to support her husband in making the leap into the race. Apparently, Henry Kissinger has weighed in as well.

This is the upper crust of the US elite talking – the enablers of the impossibly powerful central banking families. The establishment seems to be in a tizzy. Either the idea is that Obama is now unelectable (or a lame duck if he IS elected) or the top people really ARE afraid of Ron Paul and what his election would mean to their one-world plans, additional wars, etc.

Either that or the apparent panic is all phony and a trick to set Ron Paul up as the eventual winner of the Republican nomination. As it stands now, he is positioned to move into first place. If Christie declines to run Ron Paul could certainly be the nominee if his numbers hold up. Who's to stop him, Sarah Palin?

Beware the Cantaloupe That Kills

Cantaloupe outbreak is deadliest in a decade … Health officials say as many as 16 people have died from possible listeria illnesses traced to Colorado cantaloupes, the deadliest food outbreak in more than a decade. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday that 72 illnesses, including 13 deaths, are linked to the tainted fruit. State and local officials say they are investigating three additional deaths that may be connected. – AP

Dominant Social Theme: Killer cantaloupes are on the loose. You could die just from looking at one. Nothing is safe in this world. Thank goodness for the US Centers for Disease Control.

Free-Market Analysis: Well, here we have further terror. We remember Mad Cow disease and much terror being induced throughout the Western world over tainted meat. But it never occurred to us that cantaloupe kills, as well.

Be scared. Very scared. "The death toll released by the CDC Tuesday — including newly confirmed deaths in Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and Texas — surpassed the number of deaths linked to an outbreak of salmonella in peanuts almost three years ago. Nine people died in that outbreak. The CDC said Tuesday that they have confirmed two deaths in Texas and one death each in in Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska."

Now when we speak of "deaths" we speak of people – and each person who dies is an individual and unique tragedy. But still we resent the alarmist nature of the way this outbreak is being covered. You have to read down in the article to find out what is causing the "cantaloupe deaths" – and then you find out it is something called "listeria."

"Listeria generally only sickens the elderly, pregnant women and others with compromised immune systems," we learn. "The CDC said the median age of those sickened is 78."

OK, again, any death is a sad one for the loved ones close to the victim. But the people being affected by this "deadly" outbreak are nearly 80 years old and their immune systems are not functioning well enough to ward off whatever listeria does to generate mortality.

Naturally, cantaloupes have been recalled, even though listeria only kills the elderly who are apparently already in bad health. "The outbreak has been traced to Jensen Farms in Holly, Colo., which recalled the tainted cantaloupes earlier this month. The Food and Drug Administration said state health officials had found listeria in cantaloupes taken from grocery stores in the state and from a victim's home that were grown at Jensen Farms."

Why couldn't the CDC and the FDA simply have alerted elderly people not to eat cantaloupes? Instead, articles have been issued nationally on the subject and hysteria has been whipped up for the usual reasons. We're supposed to think the CDC and the FDA are "on the case" and doing their jobs protecting US citizens against all manner of deadly diseases.

In fact, all they're likely to do in this case is make the lives of those who grow cantaloupes miserable while putting some farmers out of business. There is a better way to handle these sorts of occurrences than via hysterical recalls. But we'll never know so long as the CDC and the FDA are "on the job."

You don’t have to play by the rules of the corrupt politicians, manipulative media, and brainwashed peers.

When you subscribe to The Daily Bell, you also get a free guide:

How to Craft a Two Year Plan to Reclaim 3 Specific Freedoms.

This guide will show you exactly how to plan your next two years to build the free life of your dreams. It’s not as hard as you think…